"Listen, I had no idea Kyle was so violent! I'm not gonna lie, I knew about the drugs, but what did you expect me to do? Rat on him? He's my brother, for god's sake."
Erin had her arms crossed in front of her chest and leaned against the one way window. She had her eye focused on Paul, but she didn't say a word. Voight sat at the table across from their only lead to Vito's whereabouts and she knew he wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily.
Thank God.
Paul had to know something about where his brother could've gone to. A safe hideout, an apartment on the skirts of town, a private jet no one knew about stashed away somewhere. They were brothers, and if Kyle had gotten Paul to cover for him at the airport, he sure as hell knew more about his brother's life than he let out.
She'd insisted on being there when Voight interviewed him, but she'd kept her mouth shut thus far. Voight was capable enough of doing the talking, but if he wouldn't give up any information, she'd step in and play a different card. She'd give him a guilt trip he'd never get rid of until he told her where his brother was hiding. She didn't care about Paul's feelings. All she cared about was Jay and getting her revenge on Kyle.
"You see, Paul, can I call you Paul?"
"Sure, I guess," their suspects brother answered, clearly freaked out by all he was going through.
"Good. You see, Paul, I don't believe you when you say you don't know where he is. And I sure as hell don't believe you when you say you had no idea your brother was so violent."
"No, I swear, I –"
"That's bullshit, Paul! If you knew about the drugs, you had to know about his violent side as well. How do you think he ran that drug business? With handing out lollipops and candy canes? It doesn't work like that, Paul. And you don't strike me as the naïve guy who doesn't even know what it's like to run a drug empire."
Vito's brother was silent for a moment and stared at his cuffed hands on the table. Erin knew they didn't have the time to let him cook in his own misery for a while. The longer they waited, the more time Kyle had to get away. That was the one thing they wanted to prevent.
Voight apparently agreed with her, because he slammed his hand so hard on the table that it even startled Erin, and she was used to Voight's ways. Her boss and surrogate dad got up out of his chair so he towered over Paul Vito, who seemed to get smaller with every passing second. He probably was terrified. Good. Maybe he'd start talking now that he knew they were serious.
"You know Paul, I've got a lovely place downstairs for people like you. We like to call it the cage. It's where I take my suspects to get them to talk. It usually doesn't take long for them to open up once we get there. But you see, I'm saving that special spot for your brother. Because you know what he did?"
Voight opened the case file of Molly Vito, the girl who'd been Kyle Vito's young bride. The girl who died a violent death last night. The girl on whose body Kyle Vito's bloody fingerprints were found. He took the crime scene photo's out of the file and placed them in front of Paul Vito on the table.
"You knew her, Paul. She was your sister-in-law. She married your brother, who was much older than her, only a few weeks ago. You were at their wedding, you were Kyle's best man."
He pointed at a close up of Molly's face. She'd been beaten bloody and eventually Kyle'd used a knife to finish his work. It didn't matter how many dead bodies Erin had seen. It never got any simpler. She knew how to turn off her feelings towards the victims in order to do her job, but every time she saw something like this, she could feel her stomach turn. It just wasn't right. She'd only been 23 years old, way too young to die.
"This is what your brother did to her, Paul. He beat her until her face was beyond recognition and then he used a kitchen knife, probably a wedding gift, to make sure she was actually dead. Why? We don't know. Maybe because they had an argument or maybe because your brother is a psychopathic bastard."
Erin wasn't able to keep her mouth shut any longer. She walked towards the table and held still next to Voight, looking at Paul who stared at the pictures of his dead sister-in-law in anguish .
"She was only 23 years old, Paul. You knew her. You liked her. You maybe even loved her more than your brother ever did. But she's dead and gone and your brother killed her. We want to stop him before he hurts anyone else. There's already one person who died at his hand and numerous other people who died because of his drug. Not to mention the detective of our unit who's fighting for his life right now in the hospital."
Paul finally looked up, tears in his eyes, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I get it, you want to protect your brother. But the simple truth is that he doesn't deserve your protection, Paul. If you'd told us sooner about him, maybe we would've been able to prevent Molly's death. But you can help us prevent other unnecessary deaths right now. Just tell us where he is."
She placed both of her hands on the table and leaned forwards, her face on the same level as his. She knew they'd hit a nerve. It seemed like Paul was almost ready to talk. All he'd needed was a little push in the right direction.
"I… I don't know exactly," he said eventually, shaking his head rapidly, tears streaming down his face. Something told Erin she'd been right about him and Molly. Maybe that was the reason why Vito had killed her and send his brother as bait to the airport so Paul would disappear behind bars while Kyle himself got away.
"Just give us a possibility," Erin said, nodding and trying to make him feel a little bit more comfortable.
"Okay… well, he has a couple of safehouses all over the city. My guess is that he's hiding out there somewhere while he's waiting for a new identity to make him disappear forever."
"Do you have a list of these addresses?"
Paul nodded and it felt like a burden felt of Erin's shoulders. They were getting closer. This bit of information could help them get to Vito. But they had to hurry. It was getting later and later and she doubted that Kyle was going to stick around that long. He would get out of town without a problem if he had a new identity. All he had to do was dye his hair and put on a pair of glasses, shave his beard and get a fake id and he would be out of their sight before they could even blink.
"Good, write them down."
Voight almost shoved the piece of paper and the pen in Paul's face and then crossed his arms, waiting for their prisoner to write down every single address he got on his brother.
"Look, if this works out we'll cut you a deal, make sure you get off easy. But it better work. I got one of my men in the hospital right now and I can't lose him. If he dies and we can't find Vito, I'll happily pin his death on you, do you understand?"
Erin swallowed and bit her lip, trying not to react to Voight's words. She'd known there was a possibility Jay would die, but she'd ignored it until know. What if he didn't make it? What if he started bleeding from the inside again and the doctors wouldn't be able to fix him? Or what if he bled out before they could even get to him?
No. She couldn't think like that. Just because there was a possibility, didn't mean it would actually happen. There was also the possibility Jay would make a full recovery and she had to keep that in mind. She had to stay positive. She had to keep faith.
After a couple of minutes, Paul was done writing the list and he pushed the piece of paper towards Voight again. The fear of being locked up for the rest of his life, or worse, dying, was written all over his face. Erin wanted to say she felt sorry for him, but the truth was she didn't. If he'd just went to the police sooner to tell them about his brother's illegal activities, Molly would still be alive and Jay wouldn't be in the hospital right now. Maybe she would see things in a different light once this was all over and done with, but right now she couldn't.
She just couldn't.
"I need to make a phone call," she told Voight, before she left the interrogation room without waitig for an actual answer from her boss. All she could think about was that she had to call Burgess to check up on Jay. She'd had this horrible feeling in her gut ever since she and Voight'd left the hospital, and she just needed to be sure he was still okay.
The minute she stepped out onto the hallway, she took her phone out of her pocket and searched for Burgess' number in her phone. When she found it, she didn't hesitate for a second and pressed the green button, holding her phone against her ear and waiting for Kim to pick up.
"Burgess."
"Kim, hey, it's me, Erin. I just… I need to know how he's doing? Is he still okay?"
"Yeah. He is. He's still unconscious but the doctors tell me they're keeping him like this for a while, they'll wake him up once they're sure he's out of danger. But it seems like he's doing okay this far. They've got a nurse keeping an eye on him constantly so there's no need to worry."
Erin sighed relieved. She felt a bit guilty for not being at the hospital right now, but she knew she could do more good here than over there. She wasn't a doctor, she was a detective. And for her the best way to deal with her emotions was to go after the son of a bitch who'd gotten them into this mess in the first place.
And to be honest, she wanted this revenge more than anyone on their squad.
"Thank God…"
She rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes for a second, appreciating the fact that they'd actually decided to keep an even closer eye on him. He'd already been on the ICU, where every patient was being monitored closely.
"He'll be fine, Erin. He will be. You've gotta believe that."
"I know… I know. Just keep an eye on things, okay?"
"Of course we will, how many times do I have to tell you?"
"You're right, I'm sorry," Erin sighed, lowering her hand and opening her eyes again. She was worried and an emotional wreck, but it was not right to question the abilities of her colleagues. Especially Burgess and Roman, two great patrolmen who knew what they were doing.
"Don't worry about it. You can call me whenever you want, but believe me when I say that I'll call you as soon as there's a change. For worse or for the better."
Erin nodded, even though Kim couldn't see that. She was right. She needed to focus on catching Vito. If there was any change to Jay's condition, she would hear about it immediately. And it wouldn't take her that long to get to the hospital, hopefully.
"All right. Thanks again, Kim. I owe you and Roman big time."
"No you don't. Jay's our colleague and friend as well. We want to help. It's our job."
"Thanks."
She hung up the phone and slid it back into her pocket, before she walked back to the interrogation room where Voight had just closed the door behind him.
"We got every single secret address Vito has, so we're gonna check them all out at the same time. I want you to come with me." He didn't even had to say why: he wanted to keep an eye on her in case they found Vito at the address they went to. But deep down she knew that Voight wouldn't stop her if she wanted to punch him in the face and knock a couple of his teeth out. She knew he would let her do what she wanted.
And at the same time, a question popped up in her mind: what would Jay want? She remembered when Antonio'd been shot by Pulpo. Voight and Olinsky'd been planning on making the bastard disappear forever, but Jay had stopped them because it wasn't right. It wasn't morally and ethically right. A light smile appeared on her face, just thinking about him and his morals made her smile. Jay Halstead was a good man and he didn't deserve all this. He deserved much better.
"Okay," she nodded eventually, turning around and walking back to the bullpen with Voight. "But we can't hurt him that bad," she decided.
Voight raised an eyebrow and held still.
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't know if you actually forgot or if you're acting like you don't remember, but Jay would want to see him disappear behind bars. He wouldn't want to see him end up dead on the bottom of the river. You know that, Hank. He wouldn't be on board with this. And no matter how bad I want to hurt Vito, I gotta honor Jay's wishes. This is about him, not about us."
Voight just looked at her, reading her face, until he eventually nodded in agreement.
"You're right, he wouldn't be on board with this. Come on."
They entered the bullpen, where the rest of the team was waiting for them. Voight held up the note with the addresses Paul Vito had given them. They'd leave the precinct in teams of two with some officers as back up, to go check out the places Vito could be hiding out.
"These are all addresses Vito could be hiding out. I want you guys to check these all out immediately. Olinsky, you're with Ruzek. Antonio and Atwater, you two team up as well. Me and Lindsay'll work together. There's about five addresses on here, so we'll have to work fast. Make sure you keep your radios open. I want an update as soon as you've found something. And when you do find Vito, make sure you take him in alive and well. We want to see him disappear behind bars for the rest of his live. We want to make him pay for what he did, remember? Do not give him the pleasure of a quick death."
Voight gave every duo an address to check out, before they all left the precinct to go their separate ways. Everyone was wearing their earpieces, so they'd stay in contact throughout the entire operation. If one of the other duo's found Vito, they'd know immediately.
All Erin could do was hope and pray this would work because she couldn't deal with it if Vito got away. Not just because their hope on revenge would be lost, but also because Vito was bound to start his business all over again somewhere else, making new victims. Because someone like him couldn't stop.
Erin got into Voight's car again, fastening her seatbelt and looking at the man who was sitting next to her. He kept his eye on the road but nevertheless Erin could see he was keeping something from her.
"Hank," she said eventually, waiting for him to react.
"What?" He looked at her, only for a second, but it was long enough for Erin to confirm her hunch.
"What are you not telling me?"
"Nothing –"
"Don't lie to me, Hank. Just tell me. If It's about Jay…"
"It's not about Jay, it's about Vito."
Erin raised an eyebrow, not really sure what to expect from this.
"Just after you left, Paul confessed something else. He told me that his brother is the type of guy who doesn't let go that easily. He's determined, he's a survivor. He doesn't like loose ends."
Erin still had no idea where Voight was going with this. What did this mean? Was this supposed to freak her out?
"So what are you trying to say?"
Voight said nothing for a while and that made her more nervous than the fact that Vito was still out there and might be able to get away unharmed.
"Erin, Vito told Jay that if he found out he couldn't trust him, he'd be a dead man."
